Color Selection is Essential to Fashion for Older Women

Be honest. How many times have you purchased something just because you “loved the color”? Other than fit, one of the first things that we look at when choosing a new item of clothing is the color.

Unfortunately, as we age, our skin changes and many of the colors that looked great on us when we were younger no longer make us sparkle.

Your Favorite Colors Aren’t Necessarily the Most Flattering

By the time we reach our 60s, we know what we like in most aspects of our lives. This is definitely true when it comes to colors. When we walk into a store, it is completely natural to gravitate towards items of clothing with colors that we love.

The problem is that your favorite colors aren’t necessarily the best colors for your skin tone.

The best thing to do is try each item of clothing on and remind yourself to look objectively at how they look next to your skin. If you still want to wear the colors that you love, even if they don’t compliment your skin, consider wearing them on bottom, not on top.

For example, while very few older women will look good in a red scarf, having a red belt may be completely appropriate with certain outfits.

Don’t Listen to Sales People – Take a Friend with You

Shopping for clothes at any age is hard work. This is especially true given the fact that sales assistants are not necessarily compensated to make us look great; they are paid to sell us clothes.

Shop assistants will sell you anything. Very few of them will tell you the truth about the color.

The advice here is to take a friend with you on your shopping trip. Not only will they be more likely to give you an honest opinion about how each item of clothing looks on you, but, they can help you to stand up to the shop assistants and take the time you need to make good fashion decisions.

Avoid Trying to Match Your Clothes to Your Eyes

Has anyone every told you, “That top looks fantastic with your eyes!” Be careful. Most of the time, people actually mean that the color in an item of clothing “matches” our eyes.

Trying to match our clothes to our eyes can be a big mistake. You think that the blue is bringing out the color in your eyes. In reality, it is doing exactly the opposite. Instead of trying to match your eye color, pay close attention to how your clothes look next to your skin tone.

Be Especially Careful with Reds and Pastels

As we get older our skin tone changes. Specifically, our skin tends to get a bit “redder” as the capillaries in our face get more fragile and break. This is one of the reasons that it is so difficult for many women our age to make reds look good with our skin.

The same goes for pastels, which have a tendency to “mix” with our skin. This is yet another example of why color selection is so important when it comes to fashion for older women.

It’s better to stick with dark colors, such as black, dark blue, or bordo, for your basic items of clothing. You can always accessorize them with other colors. Just be extra careful with reds and pastels.

Choose Clothing for Fit First and Color Second

Perhaps the most important advice is to keep color in perspective. Compared to “fit,” it’s just not that important. What we really want to do it technically fit your body, so that the clothing fits you. Then, the color can be added.

Do you agree with these tips for choosing colors that look great on you? Have you ever chosen an item of clothing that you loved because of its color, only to find that it didn’t look good on you?

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Margaret Manning is the founder of Sixty and Me. She is an entrepreneur, author and speaker. Margaret is passionate about building dynamic and engaged communities that improve lives and change perceptions. Margaret can be contacted at margaret@sixtyandme.com

Love all bright colours. After decades wearing black, thinking it made me look thinner, I have upped my confidence and am enjoying colour. Black may (or may not) make you look thinner but it also often makes you look boring and uninteresting. Also since letting my hair go natural I suit bright colours more.

September 4, 2015

Sue Salisbury

yes

September 4, 2015

Moreen Wheatley

I’m loving the color purple at the moment regardless of so called friends asking me if I’m frustrated, I have purple shoes, jackets and shirts

September 4, 2015

Denise Jones

Red but really just about any color !

September 4, 2015

Janet Starkey Petsch

Red! Turquoise…balanced with basic black. Love hot pink bright orange…prints. bold and vibrant but by far no go to is RED. Not big on white…I’m too messy plus it makes me feel far. Not keen on pastels either.

I’ve gotten into the “Dressing Your Truth” series. After figuring out my type, its been quite liberating to choose colors and styles that make me feel confident. I use to wear dark colors all the time because I thought they were slimming. However, after determing my type, I’m so much more confident and comfortable in brighter colors.

Colour is a key determinant since I know my style. Strong and vibrant is best. Recently bought a dress in the perfect style but what I thought were wrong colour tones. More compliments than ever so I’m looking in the mirror and trying on more.

taupes and deep or dove grays look great with my hair , olive green still looks great on me because of my warm green eye color. Warm colors that I wore when I was younger still look good also – only more muted hues though AND black – always love black.

I used to wear gold a lot, my hair color was blond. Now I have silver hair and so I just don’t think gold looks good on me. I wear dark purple, navy blue, red and dark pink. I think they look best on me.

red or maroon, chocolate, navy… dark and bright colors. The problem in the USA is that certain dark colors that look good on Mediterranean types are more difficult to find. When I find them, I wear them forever!!

I did the Colour Me Beautiful(I think that’s the correct name ) class in 1985 and have a swatch of the colours that suit my skin tones . I don’t always stick to it but it would be better if I did .The lady had trouble putting me into a category , deciding between winter and spring but in the end chose spring . Spring colours are light and bright , winter colours are more vibrant .It’s the shades of most colours that matter , not so much the colour itself .

I like black pants as hey are slimming and any color on top. Love purple and white shirts with a scarf. Strangely I am redoing my house in different shades of white and beige with accent colors in pillows, ect. Just decorated a bathroom with all white fixtures and light gray walls..

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